The Hungarian government decided to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, said on Thursday, shortly after the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, based on the ICC arrest warrant, came to the country for a state visit.
Right Prime Minister Hungarian Viktor Orban invited his Israeli equivalent to Budapest in November, the day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant regarding allegations of war crimes in Gaza, where Israel fired his offensive after the attack through Hamas, chaired by Hamas for fighters from southern Israel. Hungary is a member of the founder of ICC.
Israel rejected the accusations, which, he says, are politically motivated and driven by anti -Semitism. He says that ICC has lost all ID, issuing orders against a democratically chosen leader of the country who exercises the right to self -defense.
As a member of the founder of Hungary, they are theoretically obliged to arrest and transfer each subject to the order from the court, but Orban explained that Hungary does not respect the rulings that he called “Brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable.”
Hungary signed the founding document ICC in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law was not announced.
Gergely Gulayas, the Chief of Staff of Orban, said in November that although Hungary ratified the Roman ICC Act, “has never become part of Hungarian law,” which means that in Hungary no court measure can be carried out.
On Thursday, Gulayas told the MTI State Information Agency that the government would start the process of retreating later on the same day.
Hungary raised the perspective of ICC output after sanctions
Orban raised the perspective of the Hungarian output with ICC after US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the prosecutor of court Karim Khan in February.
“It is time for Hungary to review what we do in an international organization that is subject to sanctions in the US,” said Orban in February X.
The Act on starting a year -round process of withdrawal from the MTK will probably be approved by the Hungarian parliament, which is dominated by the Orban Fidesz party.
The Netherlands, which is the host of ICC, said that until the end of the withdrawal, Hungary must continue to fulfill their duties.
“The full process of withdrawal from ICC lasts about a year; at that time Hungary will have to fulfill all their obligations to the court,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp off the beaten track of NATO meeting in Brussels.
Netanyahu enjoyed strong support for years from Hungary Orban, an important ally who was ready to block EU statements or critical actions against Israel in the past.
ICC judges said that when they had issued an order that there were reasonable grounds to think that Netanyahu and his former head of defense were responsible for criminal activities, including murder, persecution and hunger as a weapon of war as part of a “universal and systematic attack on the civilians of Gaza.”
According to the Palestinian health authorities of the Israeli campaign, it killed over 50,000 Palestinians and devastated Gaza zones. According to Israel, the attack on Israel to Israel, on October 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and saw over 250 hostages.
ICC also issued an arrest warrant against the Hamas leader in November. His death was confirmed after the order was issued.